BSC exchanges culture in Morocco

Representatives of three Bethesda club teams experience another side of soccer

Members of the Bethesda Soccer Club Select team with players from Berrechid Club in Morocco. Bethesda players pictured (in white, left to right): Pam Vranis, Paige Butler, Laura McAtee and Anja Opsahl.

The universal language of sport is an amazing thing.

Soccer was the only means of communication for 13 Bethesda Soccer Club members when they traveled to Morocco July 9-18 as part of a program run by the Women's Leadership through Football Initiative in Morocca in conjunction with the United States Embassy in Rabat.

Aiming to expose young Moroccans to the culture of women's soccer in America, BSC was invited for a weeklong tour through the North African country.

"For the most part, no one spoke English," rising Georgetown Visitation senior Elisa Dolan of Bethesda said. "Most of the time we just showed them and they got it. They all knew what we were talking about; you could tell a lot by their facial expressions. That was one of the really cool things, how much we could communicate without language."

The Bethesda contingent included players from the U-16 Storm (Lindsey Andonian, Alix Emden, Laura McAtee, Anja Opsahl, Paige Siegel, Angela White), U-18 Riptide (Dolan, Rebecca Laubner, Saleiha Mayer-Marks, Paige O'Flahavan) and U-19 Freedom (Paige Butler, Pam Vranis) as well as Zoe Thorpe of the Seneca Eagles. They played five matches against Moroccan women's teams, then teamed with them to run clinics and workshops in small villages and underprivileged communities.

In their down time, BSC players took in the sights and got in touch with the Moroccan culture.

Last year's Gazette Player of the Year, Churchill graduate Vranis, said the condition of women's sports there made her appreciate the opportunities afforded her at home.

Vranis said there are no formal soccer league for girls in Morocco until they have reached the age of 18 or 19. Many have to wait until college to play more than a pickup game.

"We have so many choices; there are so many different club teams," the Johns Hopkins University-bound Vranis said. "You have BSC, you have the [Montgomery Soccer Club], and we have high school. ... And they don't have that. Even when I'm training alone now, or with the team, it makes you think about how they don't have that and you just want to try so much harder. It's self-motivating."

The trip was a learning experience for everyone. While the main goal was to show the Moroccan community the American attitude toward women's soccer, the BSC players learned a lot from their Moroccan counterparts.

Storm and Richard Montgomery coach Tony Pykosh, who accompanied BSC players on the trip, encouraged his charges to try challenging defenders with some of the individual skills displayed by the Moroccans.

"They actually play a lot like how guys play," Vranis said "[In America] girls are taught to pass, to take it wide, use our players and play as a team. There, it's more individualistic. They'll definitely try to take you on one-on-one and try and be the superhero and do stuff on their own. We showed them how we play, possessing, switching fields by passing. But it was good so see how they play, too, and try to do more individual stuff and kind of take on people and take it to goal."

Change has to start somewhere, and it definitely does not happen overnight. But more trips like last month's certainly help get the ball rolling.

Vranis has spent a lot of time working with younger girls at camps and clinics in the United States. Starting young and getting exposure early to develop athletically, she said, is pivotal.

"That will just draw a lot of attention," Vranis said. "The big leagues will come and kind of blow up from there. I think having the U.S. National Team here and the Washington Freedom so close to us, girls here can really relate. Freedom players do so many things, hold camps, for girls my age that we can really relate. Like, Oh, Abby Wambach showed me how to head the ball.' You can relate to that. It's not just some figure that is so unreachable."